WORLD number 76, Swiss 24-year-old Jil Teichmann has continued her outstanding run at the 2021 Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati to book a spot in her maiden WTA Tour 1000 final. The rising talent has two previous career titles, but has not risen inside the Top 40 to-date. That will change if she can cause a monumental upset against world number one Ash Barty in tomorrow’s women’s singles final.

Teichmann took care of fifth seed Karolina Pliskova to stop a potential Wimbledon final rematch between the Czech and Barty, winning her semi-final in an hour and 22 minutes, Teichmann won 6-2 6-4 to book her spot in the final, winning 69.8 and 59.1 per cent of her first and second serve points respectively, doing it off a 66.2 per cent clip. She also served double the aces that Pliskova did (8-4), and broke four times from nine chances, compared to Pliskova’s one from seven.

“I think I served really good, as did she,” Teichmann said post-match. “Especially in the beginning, I was trying to return, somehow get into the rally. I felt as well very good in the rally, and I think that’s where I made the difference.”

Coming into Cincinnati, Teichmann had won just one of her past seven matches and two of her past 10 after a ripping February. The Swiss talent reached a quarter final in the Phillip Island Trophy, and semi-finals at the Adelaide International and Dubai Tennis Championships, but fell one short of reaching the Dubai final – a 1000 event – which she has now achieved. In the past week she has knocked off world number two Naomi Osaka, as well as Top 10 seeds in Belinda Bencic and Pliskova, only dropping one set – to Osaka – along the way.

“I have been working a lot on many different aspects,” Teichmann said. “Mentally I have been working [on] my strokes. I have been working physically, as I mentioned already the past few days. I have had injuries, so I had to work a lot physically, as well. Long weeks, long hours. I guess just the positives getting together right now this week.”

In a more predictable result, Barty defeated German Angelique Kerber in straight sets, having to work hard in the second, before posting a 6-2 7-5 victory in an hour and 14 minutes. Whilst the Australian’s serve can be inconsistent at times, Barty put down 12 aces to one, and won a massive 75 per cent of her first serve points. Whilst Kerber was more efficient with her serve (64.3 to 56.3 per cent), she struggled off her second serve (25 per cent) and could only break Barty twice, as the Australian broke Kerber five times.

Barty was still critical of her second set, where Kerber almost got a look in, but she was able to steady.

“I didn’t feel like I did a lot wrong. In the games at 2-0 and 2-1, I felt the overhead, the ball just kept coming and kept coming with the wind and I got a little bit stuck under it. Angie came up with some really good stuff and tough points through that period. Even the same, at 2-2, I felt like I was able to set up points well and then missed the execution with the last little bit,” Barty said post-match.

“That was frustrating me, because I knew that Angie was lifting and I needed to go with her, and not being able to execute the points when I had set them up the way that I wanted to was frustrating. “Being able to get that momentum back with the break straight away, then it was a bit of a tug of war. “I felt like I was able to build pressure on Angie’s games, but we both did a good job of getting out of some tough holds late in that second set.

“I think in the end, with the new balls, just being a little bit more aggressive and taking it on a bit more and trusting myself to actually get after it, and in a way accept if I was going to miss I was going to miss in the right way. I think that, in the end of the second set, was big.”

Already in 2021 the world number one has four singles titles – including her Wimbledon Grand Slam – and is firmly in pole position to retain the number one mantle for yet another year. With a win against Teichmann in the final, Barty would move her total wins to 40 in the 2021 season, and her career singles titles to 13 in a remarkable effort. The Australian has also managed to put her disappointment in the singles event at the Olympics behind her to reach the WTA 1000 final. Her opponent was looking forward to the clash.

“To me, it’s perfect,” Teichmann said. “Playing Center Court against the world number one in a final, it’s perfect. It’s a really nice challenge, and I’ll go for it.”

WESTERN & SOUTHERN OPEN SEMI-FINALS RESULTS:

[1] Ash Barty (AUS) defeated Angelique Kerber (GER) 6-2 7-5
Jil Teichmann (SUI) defeated [5] Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 6-2 6-4

Picture credit: WTA Tour